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Jim McDonough Builds Giant Ships Out of Legos

Jim McDonough loves ships and he loves Lego’s. He has been captivated by them ever since he was five years old. Now at 46, when he isn’t working as a fisherman off Abroath on the East Coast of Scotland, he spends his time building ships out of Lego.

Jim McDonough has made fishing boats, sailing ships and luxury liners but McDonough’s ship’s aren’t on a small scale. He has built a Japanese destroyer and cargo ship both over ten feet long. One of his most recent ships was the USS Missouri (BB-63) which took part in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in World War Two and fought in the Korean War and Gulf War.

McDonough’s USS Missouri is an impressive 4 ft. 6 in. tall, 3 ft. wide and 24 ft. 3 in. long. It is a little bit under the world record for largest ship built out of Legos, but it is still too big to close his garage door on.

The USS Missouri took Jim McDonough three years to build and tens of thousands of Lego pieces. It has a motorized stern crane and working bridge lights that look really awesome in the dark. McDonough’s attention to detail is stunning. He has added little unseen bits of the ship like anti-aircraft batteries and sailors at their battle stations. Important to McDonough is that he does not glue any of the parts together, which he feels is cheating.

Besides the USS Missouri, McDonough has built other US ships including the USS Arizona, the destroyer USS Fletcher and a number of Japanese warships including the carrier Ibuki (complete with airplanes) as well as tanks and airplanes. He has also ventured out to cars but McDonough’s true passion is for ships. Jim McDonough’s plans his next project to be the USS Saratoga.